CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 480 km round trip from Ravenna - roughly 9 h 10 in the saddle. On the way it passes Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Mauro, Gessi Bolognesi, Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino and Baraccano. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
The ride follows Mausoleum of Galla Placida → Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Mauro for 66 km.
It is a surprise how small Galla Placidia's mausoleum is. A cross-shaped brick chamber no bigger than a modest chapel, it stands hidden behind the church of San Vitale in a quiet corner, with plain walls that give no hint of what is inside. Step in and the dark opens into a deep blue night. The vault is covered in tiny gold stars on a field of lapis-coloured glass, and a gold cross shines in the dome above, with figures of the apostles and doves drinking from a fountain in the lunettes. The only light comes through thin alabaster windows, which turn the daylight amber.
Read the complete Mausoleum of Galla Placida write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Mausoleum of Galla Placida is where the day begins. Next is Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Mauro, 46 km on.
Driving through the hills of Romagna, south of Faenza, you notice a long, pale ridge cutting across the valleys like a wall. This is the Vena del Gesso Romagnola, a band of gypsum rock about twenty-five kilometres long, and Monte Mauro is its highest point, rising above the villages of Riolo Terme, Brisighella and Fognano. The ridge is now a regional park and part of the UNESCO site for the evaporitic karst of the northern Apennines.
Read the complete Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Mauro write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Mauro comes up about 66 km into the recorded legs. Next is Gessi Bolognesi.
Ride south out of Bologna and within ten minutes the city's suburbs give way to something surprising: a range of low hills made of gypsum, a soft, crystalline rock that dissolves in water and forms caves, sinkholes and strange, shiny outcrops. These are the Gessi Bolognesi, a protected regional park between the Savena and Idice valleys, and in 2023 they became part of the UNESCO site for the evaporitic karst and caves of the northern Apennines.
Read the complete Gessi Bolognesi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 128 km into the recorded legs you reach Gessi Bolognesi. Next is Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino, 46 km on.
Crystals the size of a hand catch the sun along the Vena del Gesso, a ridge of selenite gypsum that runs for some twenty-five kilometres across the hills of Romagna, from the Sillaro valley to the Lamone. The rock formed millions of years ago when the Mediterranean dried up and its salts were deposited, and it has since been carved by water into caves, sinkholes and blind valleys. In 2023, UNESCO listed the evaporite karst and caves of the northern Apennines, and the Vena del Gesso is the heart of it. Monte Casino is one of the peaks on the ridge, near Borgo Tossignano and Casola Valsenio.
Read the complete Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino, about halfway. Next is Baraccano.
Baraccano is not a village, it is a corner of Bologna: a gate in the old thirteenth-century walls where the Via Santo Stefano runs out of the centre. The name comes from the barbican that once defended it. Next to the gate stands the small sanctuary of the Madonna del Baraccano, a Renaissance church whose fresco of the Virgin drew pilgrims after a reported miracle, and beside it a lovely little courtyard, a place most visitors walk straight past on the way to the Two Towers.
Read the complete Baraccano write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Baraccano sits at 185 km, about halfway. Next is back through Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino, 46 km on.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino comes up about 300 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Gessi Bolognesi.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Gessi Bolognesi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 358 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Gessi Bolognesi. Next is back through Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Mauro, 46 km on.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Mauro write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Mauro, late in the day. Next is Mausoleum of Galla Placida.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Mausoleum of Galla Placida write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 480 km.
Mausoleum of Galla Placida → Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Mauro is 66 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Mauro → Gessi Bolognesi is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Gessi Bolognesi → Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino → Baraccano is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Baraccano → back through Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino → back through Gessi Bolognesi is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Gessi Bolognesi → back through Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Mauro is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Mauro → Mausoleum of Galla Placida is 65 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.